WR, I read your clinic on Chris' thread re: fishing ponds.  Now I want to tap your knowledge okay?

I have a 36 acre, man made,  body of water across the street.  Would you qualify it as a lake or pond?  Max depth 8'.  It's long with 3-4 bays and 3-4 narrow areas.  Was built in 1978.  Has very little structure or cover, but many small docks and pontoon boats.  At shoreline depth ~1 1/2', with a slight slope out to 20' from the shoreline to about 5' deep, then to 8' in the center.  Bottom has mossy grass and sediment.  The water visibility ranges from 3-4 feet.  This is Arizona so we have over 240 days of bright sun.  Water today is 60 degrees.  I fish with three rods in a kayak most of the time, sometimes in the big boat with the finder.  What type of lures, techniques would you use on a regular basis?  I have caught as many as 24 bass in a day, as few as one and the largest was 4 1/2lbs.  Also there are crappies, catfish, carp, bluegill etc.   GO FOR IT EVERYONE ELSE TOO! ;D

Well, I'd call it a big pond. Sounds similar to some of the ponds I fish, but bigger. Since there is little or no structure other than the manmade docks, I would think the bass should hold near the docks, but in a relatively small, shallow body of water, all the fish will probably cruise around randomly searching for food. Until you eliminate some of the shoreline that is just never productive, you need to work the whole pond.

All that gunk on the bottom makes fishing jigs and tubes with exposed hooks troublesome. I use weedless and weightless soft plastics: Senkos and Ikas. Shallow cranks, Rat-L Traps and spinnerbaits would seem likely candidates, too. You'll have no trouble with top water but deep diving cranks and most jerkbaits are probably out.

As I noted in "the clinic", I fish parallel to the bank, out five or ten yards. If you can find any structure, humps, rocks, ditches or abrupt transition, focus there.

THX Roadwarrior,

I am successful near the docks with a 3" grub on a jighead, Kalin or Powerbait.  I am going to try a T-rig worm now, how would you suggest fishing it?

Always slooooooooooooooow. Rather than dragging it or hopping it, try a short sweep so it just moves forward off the bottom and falls straight down again. So, with your rod parallel to the water, pull the rod horizontally a foot or so and bring the rod back towards the worm. Basically you're letting it fall on slack line. Leave it there for a moment or two, take up the slack and repeat until you think you are out of the zone. The bite will come either on the fall or when you first move the worm.

With the soft bottom you described, I think you will have more success with a weightless presentation. I NEVER fish Ikas or Senkos with weight. You don't need weight at the depths you have described. When I fish deeper and feel like I need weight, I throw the Kut-Tail T-rigged. This year I'm experimenting with the Roboworm, T-rigged, which killed them last fall in some western tournaments.

THX again RW, I will try without weight also.

Last yr I caught about 20 in 2 days drop shotting Robo's (the sculpin shad)